We visited Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania, the place where George Washington and the Continental Army took refuge during the winter of 1777-1778.
Visitor center:
Housing:
Cannon:
Oven:
Redoubt:
Monument:
Covered bridge:
Baseball: Harrisburg Senators vs Erie SeaWolves
We attended a double-A baseball game between the Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals affiliate) vs Erie SeaWolves (Detroit Tigers affiliate) at FMB Field in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
An interactive map of the ballpark on an island in the capital city of Pennsylvania:
Capitol building:
FNB Field:
Dinner options:
Weird burger and cheesesteak:
Snack:
View from our seats, section 110, row 1, seats 1 & 2:
Play ball:
Selfie:
Run scores:
Exploring the ballpark:
Hershey ice cream:
Ball hit the ump’s mask:
Wackiness:
Broken bat:
Final scores:
Hershey’s Chocolate World
We visited Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
We did the Create Your Own Candy Bar experience, where you choose components for a bar; here are Jenn’s selections:
My selections:
Selfie:
Production line:
While the chocolate is drying, you design your packaging:
Production line:
Our packages:
Then we did the free Hershey’s Chocolate Tour, a ride showing what goes in to producing chocolate bars:
Dinner in the food hall:
Dessert:
Hershey’s Largest Candy Store:
Extra-big Kit-Kat (which we didn’t buy):
We did buy a lot of stuff, though:
Kissmobile:
My custom candy bar:
Jenn’s custom candy bar:
A fun experience.
Thousand Trails Hershey RV Campground
We stayed at Thousand Trails Hershey RV Campground in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. (Campground Reviews listing.)
If you don’t mind the occasional farm smells and being woken up by geese, this is a delightful campground. And convenient to Hershey. You know, the chocolate place.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-04-20
- Check out: 2025-05-03
- 13 nights
Weather:
- Partly sunny, a little rain
- High temps 65-75°F, lows 44-56°F
- A little wind, gusts to 25 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise (dogs, a few kids)
- Lots of bird noise (mostly geese)
- Not noise, but an unpleasant smell sometimes, probably from nearby farms
Site:
- #B97, back-in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 55 feet long by 15 feet wide
- 25 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Just grass between sites
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Tall trees
- Mostly clean site
- Elevation 550 feet, front facing NW
- Backing on to lake
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
- 70 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 25-64 Mbps down, 8-20 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 10-12 Mbps down, 0.25 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- AT&T: 7 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 45-70 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 2-5 Mbps up, 30 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Seasonally closed pool
- Small lake
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice park close to Hershey
This was a very nice park by Thousand Trails standards. The roads in the park are easily navigable, but the access roads are a bit narrow, so you’ll be fine once you get to the park. Our site was somewhat level, but the hydraulic levelers coped well. Utilities were all good, with 70 psi water pressure, so bring a pressure regulator. We enjoyed the view of the lake and the waterfowl wandering about. The Canada Geese are a bit of a hazard to navigation and sleeping in (better than an alarm clock), but seeing the goslings out and about was nice. This park no longer allows mail or packages of any kind, but the post office in Campbelltown accepts general delivery and was the cutest, friendliest, and most homey post office I’ve ever been to.
The most annoying thing about our stay was the check-in process. They took my TT membership card and held onto it until I trekked back and handed in the (unnecessary and redundant) paperwork where I had to give them my license and registration information for my RV and truck and any guests I might be expecting and pledging the soul of my firstborn child (or something to that effect), whereupon they deigned to give me my gate pass and return of my membership card. After a long travel day through the PA turnpike, dealing with asinine bureaucracy and being held hostage is one of the last things I want to deal with. I sure hope that once they get used to the assigned site situation, they sunset this ridiculous policy. Nevertheless, we’d be happy to stay here again. We camped at Thousand Trails Hershey RV Campground in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Nice view:
Utilities:
Ducks below birdfeeders on our neighboring site:
Tortoise crossing the road:
Geese and goslings:
Bathrooms:
Other sites:
Cabins:
Welcome center:
Closed swimming pool:
Game court:
Mini golf:
Lake:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Ocean View, New Jersey to Lebanon, Pennsylvania motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 162 miles from Ocean View, New Jersey to Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
Travel from Ocean View, New Jersey to Lebanon, Pennsylvania
We drove our coach 162 miles, about three hours of driving, from Ocean View, New Jersey to Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading northwest:
An interactive map:
Taking out the trash on the way out of the campground:
Tollway:
Bridge over Great Egg Harbor Bay:
Walt Whitman Bridge over Delaware River:
Wide toll plaza:
Philadelphia:
Heavy traffic:
St John the Baptist church:
Another toll plaza:
Very close roadworks barrier:
Paladin on the dash leaving a rest area:
Another super-narrow toll plaza:
Heading towards Hershey:
Chicken:
Thousand Trails:
Following our coach to our site:
Our site:
Compact garbage bin fits next to toilet
There isn’t a lot of room in the rear and mid bathrooms of our coach, so we looked for a compact garbage bin that would fit next to the toilet.
We found one on Amazon (but it isn’t available there anymore; there are similar ones if you search):
It has a handle to remove the inner bin:
And a built-in toilet brush:
A compact solution for a small space.
Baseball: Philadelphia Phillies vs San Francisco Giants
We attended a game of the Philadelphia Phillies vs San Francisco Giants, playing at the Phillies ballpark, Citizens Bank Park.
Lovely, if cool, day for a ballgame. The Phillies Phanatic is the greatest mascot (sorry, Moose). The hometown crowd is very vocal and even boos their own players when they make an error, but otherwise, the folks we met were friendly and helpful to us out-of-towners. The park itself is rather mid-tier—no really “wow” factor, and we sadly didn’t get to see the homerun bell in action. Took over an hour to get out of the parking lot afterwards—craziness!
An interactive map of the ballpark and extensive surface parking around it:
Philadelphia:
Citizens Bank Park:
Home of the Philadelphia Phillies:
Selfie:
Crabfries:
Chicken donuts and crabfries:
Baseball stadium passport stamp:
Jenn with a model Phillie Phanatic:
Peach parfait:
View from our seats, Section 132, Row 26, Seats 1-2:
The Phillie Phanatic:
Play ball:
Camera guy and a dancing fan:
Exploring the ballpark:
Beverages:
Attendance 41,321:
Run scores:
Scores:
Phillies win!
Cape May Lighthouse
We visited the Cape May Lighthouse, and the nearby beach, with the ruins of Battery 223 on the beach.
Cape May Lighthouse:
Birdhouses:
Cape May Lighthouse:
Battery 223:
The beach, with the waves coming in at an angle:
The remains of an elaborate sandcastle, with the lighthouse in the background:
Thousand Trails Lake & Shore
We stayed at Thousand Trails Lake & Shore in Ocean View, New Jersey. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A fairly typical Thousand Trails campground, mostly full of park models and annual sites, with a small section for transients.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-04-13
- Check out: 2025-04-20
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Partly sunny
- High temps 53-71°F, lows 40-56°F
- Some wind, gusts to 28 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise
- Industrial noise from a mine next to the campground during working hours (and sometimes overnight)
Site:
- #E16, back-in, sand
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Unlevel site; high on rear and passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Sand site about 50 feet long by 45 feet wide
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Tall trees
- Somewhat clean site
- Elevation 20 feet, front facing NW
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located at back of site
- 60 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located at back of site
- Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 430-630 Mbps down, 45 Mbps up, 19 ms ping
- AT&T: 220-280 Mbps down, 17 Mbps up, 58 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 25 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters near entrance
- Pool
- Beach
- Water park
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice park close to Jersey Shore activities
Most of this park is occupied by annual sites/park models, with a small area for “transient” visitors like us. We arrived not long after they’d opened for the season, and there was a bit of a hassle as they adjusted to the new way of assigning sites. The gate that’s supposed to be used by RVs checking in was out of commission, so we had to go through the car gate, which doesn’t have a keypad high enough to reach from the RV. The girl at the front desk said she’d keep an eye out and let us in, but she’d obviously forgotten or gone somewhere else in the 5 minutes it took us to unhook the tow vehicle, so we were stuck. I saw at least one other camper have the same problem a couple of days later, as well.
Once we got to our site, it was long enough for our motorhome and wide enough to park beside it. The site was a little unlevel, but better than some others. Nice little lake and beach on the property, and during the hot months, I imagine the pool and splash pad areas are super busy. Trash disposal is very far from the camping area, so slightly inconvenient if you don’t have a golf cart or take it in your car when you go out. There was also some low hum of nearby industrial noise, but it wasn’t too loud inside the RV. We camped at Thousand Trails Lake & Shore in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Our first new state of the year, we were able to add the New Jersey sticker to our map:
Lake and sunset:
Seasonally closed water park:
Other sites:
Nothing too exciting about it, but we wouldn’t mind staying here again.